Aircraft require regular inspection in order to ensure that stresses and strains experienced during operation of the aircraft have not caused structural damage to the aircraft, for example cracks. Aircraft inspection is time consuming as it usually involves an engineer making a visual inspection of the aircraft, often in accordance with a manufacturer determined schedule. This may increase the downtime of an aircraft, thus making operation more expensive for an airline. Additionally, some elements of an aircraft are difficult to inspect visually, for example the inside of a wing structure, such as a fuel tank, and particularly the inside of a fuel tank. The inspection process of such elements will take longer than for external, easily viewed, elements of the aircraft, and may further increase the aircraft downtime.
To address this problem, aircraft designers may factor in significant additional strength in to those elements of the aircraft, thereby providing a redundancy to increase safety and reduce the risk of structural damage going unnoticed. This “overdesigning” of aircraft elements may increase the weight of the aircraft, making it less efficient to operate, and also increase the cost of manufacture.
The present invention seeks to mitigate the above-mentioned problems. Alternatively or additionally, the present invention seeks to provide an improved apparatus and method for inspecting aircraft.